US Labs Not Good Enough
To Confirm Mad Cow?
By Mark Sherman
Associated Press Writer
12-25-03

Note - If US labs are not competent enough to independently
confirm a case of mad cow, what does that tell us? Why is 'independent
confirmation' needed? -ed

WASHINGTON -- A British lab
provided initial independent confirmation Thursday that the United States
has its first case of mad cow disease, U.S. agriculture officials said.
Federal investigators labored to trace the path the infected animal took
from birth to slaughter.

Scientists at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge,
England, told the Agriculture Department they concur with the reading of
tests on the stricken Holstein cow that led U.S. officials to conclude
the animal had the brain-wasting disease, U.S. officials said.

"We are considering this confirmation," said
USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison, adding that the English lab still will
conduct its own test using another sample from the cow's brain. Final test
results on the cow from Washington state were expected by the end of the
week, she said.

Professor Steven Edwards, chief of the British lab, said
those results already have been given to USDA. But Edwards refused to disclose
whether the tests show that the animal had mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform
encephalopathy.

Meanwhile, Harrison said, investigators were working
through the holiday to prevent a potential outbreak of the deadly disease
and to calm public fears about the food supply. Government officials have
said there is no threat to the food supply because the cow's brain and
spine - nerve tissue where scientists say the disease is found - were removed
before it was sent on for processing.

"Even though this is Christmas Day, federal officials
are working on the investigation," she said.

The government is trying to find the herd the cow was
raised with, since the cow likely was sickened several years ago from eating
feed made partly from an infected cow. The incubation period in cattle
is four to five years, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.

Authorities also want to know where the animals were
transported and have narrowed their search to two unidentified livestock
markets in Washington state, where the sick cow could have been purchased.

Government sources told The Associated Press that the
cow lived since 2001 at the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash., a town 40
miles south of Yakima. Officials have said a dairy farm near Mabton is
under quarantine and that its herd would be slaughtered if the mad cow
diagnosis was confirmed.

Authorities also were scrambling to find where the meat
cut from the animal was sent. The Agriculture Department already has issued
a recall for 10,410 pounds of beef slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake
Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the recall was
an extra precaution.

But the government came under criticism on two fronts.
John Stauber, the author of "Mad Cow U.S.A.," said the U.S. hasn't
done enough to keep BSE out of the country.

Cattle get sick by eating feed that contains tissue from
the brain and spine of infected animals. The United States has banned such
feed since 1997.

"Here's the problem, the feed ban has been grossly
violated by feed mills," Stauber said in a telephone interview from
his home in Madison, Wis.

In one such case, X-Cel Feeds Inc., of Tacoma, Wash.,
admitted in a consent decree in July that it violated FDA regulations designed
to prevent the possible spread of the disease.

Agriculture officials said that only two out of some
1,800 firms are not in compliance with the ban, a significant improvement
since 1997.

Stauber also said he believes the ban is ineffective
because it exempts blood from cattle, which Stauber said could transmit
mad-cow type diseases. Government officials and industry executives have
said there is no evidence that animals can be infected from the blood of
other animals.

Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University
of California at San Francisco who discovered the proteins that cause mad
cow disease, said he warned Veneman recently that it was "just a matter
of time" before the disease was found in the United States.

He said he told her the United States should immediately
start testing every cow that shows signs of illness and eventually every
single cow upon slaughter, The New York Times reported in Thursday's editions.

Prusiner, a Nobel laureate, told the Times that fast,
accurate and inexpensive tests are available, including one that he has
patented through his university that he says could add 2 or 3 cents a pound
to the cost of beef.

The scientist said Veneman is getting poor advice from
USDA scientists and did not seem to share his sense of urgency when he
met with her six weeks ago, after several months of seeking a meeting.

"We have met with many experts in this area, including
Dr. Prusiner," Julie Quick, a spokesman for Veneman told the Times.
"We welcome as much scientific input and insight as we can get on
this very important issue. We want to make sure that our actions are based
on the best available science."

While government and cattle industry officials voiced
assurances that the beef on American Christmas holiday tables was safe
to eat, the biggest buyers of U.S. beef around the world slapped bans on
imports of the American product.

BSE is caused by a misshapen protein - a prion - that
eats holes in a cow's brain. A total of 153 people worldwide have been
reported to have contracted the human form of the illness, according to
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.